


Steve does not control what he endorses

by PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson



Series: The stories of the Captain America needs a hug hashtag [11]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (again), Gen, Misleading ad, Podfic Welcome, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers is Not Captain America, Steve does not like war, Steve gets angry at the government, Transformative Works Welcome, but more literally this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25077724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson/pseuds/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson
Summary: Edit:so I completely forgot to add this to the series, so I’m adding it now! Sorry about that!
Series: The stories of the Captain America needs a hug hashtag [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1466758
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	Steve does not control what he endorses

**Author's Note:**

> Edit:so I completely forgot to add this to the series, so I’m adding it now! Sorry about that!

Sara opened Twitter on her phone, and saw that there was another video with Steve in the thumbnail. She couldn’t help but be excited, having a video from Steve often meant quite a bit of excitement to come. She tapped on the video, and sat down properly as the video loaded.

“Hey guys,” Steve said from his spot on a couch, waving to the camera. “I’m posting this video today because of a very misadvised ad campaign that the United States government has begun.

You might not know this, but the image of Captain America is currently owned by the United States government. It sounds very weird, but it is true. What basically happened was that, when I was first approached with the proposition to be Captain America and sell bonds, they told me that if I signed, I would not get most of the money, as that would be used for the war effort, but that I would get enough to live off of, and I would have the final say as to what would be created with the image of Captain America. They implied that it was the only way I would get any control of anything about Captain America.

Of course,” he said with a sigh. “They basically tossed the contract at me with a whole bunch of other papers when they knew I didn’t have the time to read before I went on tour, and implied that I would have more say than I got on the contract. I managed to decry the most... demeaning of posters, ads, etc. made with the Captain America image while I was alive, but not all of them.

I drafted a will before I got the serum where I named Bucky as the executor of my will. Then, Bucky died, and I died soon after, completely forgetting to change my will’s executor to Peggy. The United States government immediately took control of my estate, including what remained of my power over the image of Captain America, which they used to create ad campaigns, licensed products, and to promote the US in general.

When I got out of the ice, I was payed my back pay by the military, and I was given my identity back legally, but got none of my possessions, or the image of Captain America, aka me, back,as any laws that would allow me to get my stuff back had a time limit of a year after being declared dead at most. And it had been decades since I’d officially died. I was even pressured to act in a series of videos that the younger people in school in America probably know, and hate, very well. I partially gave up because of how depressed I was at the time, feeling that there was no point in even trying, but also because of my legal advisor. In the file dump, I found out the legal advisor was Hydra, and very invested in not letting me, a person very concerned with equality, have control of my own image.

I didn’t even consider the possibility of me getting the rights to my image back until the ad campaign came out. In case you haven’t seen the ad, let me tell you what it consisted of. It was basically an image of me, and words that said,” Steve put into a very dramatic announcer voice and continued. “Do you want to hunt down terrorists with your friends? Go after enemies of the US like I did, while getting a strength that will last a lifetime? Join the US army, and take down threats to liberty!””

Steve went back to his normal voice, and continued. “For one, they’re implying that you can get my serum strength and looks by joining the army, which is very badly wrong. The only reason that I am still skinnier than the average person, despite my love for food in this time, is because I have a metabolism that is about four times an average person’s, so I need to eat a lot of high calorie foods just to keep up with it, and,” he continued, face getting sterner. “Just because other people may think you’re attractive doesn’t mean that you are any more valuable than anyone else. So the ad is playing on people’s insecurities, and implying things that aren’t possible, but what’s even worse is that they are implying that I support the wars that the US is currently a part of, and comparing them to World War Two in one fell swoop.

I personally don’t know enough about the current wars to say whether I support them or not, but one thing that I do know is that many wars are often started purely to unite a country, and to distract them from other things going on behind the scenes. Again, I don’t know enough to say that I support the current wars or not, so do not believe the ad saying that I for sure do support them. Another thing is that they’re implying is that these wars are comparable to World War Two, which it isn’t. One of the reasons I was so determined to go to war was because it was definitely a betrayal of human rights. All of us heard the rumours from the new immigrants, rumours of people getting taken from their houses in the middle of the night, movements getting restricted, all sorts of bad things, so I wanted to fight in the war to keep those people safe. These wars are not so cut and dry, and as I said, I don’t have enough information to say whether I support them or not.

The last bad thing about this is what it implies about war in general. It’s talking about it like it’s a game, like it’s all fun with friends, which isn’t anywhere near true, and you all deserve to know all the information so you can make an informed decision. War is awful. It is intense boredom, only mitigated by moments of extreme terror. It means watching people die in front of you while you can do nothing. It means living in fear of everything you have seen. It means living with nightmares that wake you up screaming for years. It is not something to enter into lightly, like this ad wants you to.

And to make sure that Captain America will never again be associated with things like this ever again, I will be suing the United States government for control of my image back. Any funds I gain through this lawsuit will be given to The Gary Sinise Foundation, and other charities that help wounded veterans and their families, because all I want is control of my image back. Thank you all for listening.”

Sara sat back, stunned by the forthrightness that he talked with. It made a surprising amount of sense. She definitely needed to post something about this!

**Author's Note:**

> I spent quite a while researching this, and yes, all the legal things in this chapter are true! This may not be canon, but it’s not *not* canon.


End file.
